


Wordless

by Mikkal



Series: [Exit Flash] [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Major Character Injury, Multi, Panic Attack, implied/referenced death seeking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-11
Updated: 2015-11-11
Packaged: 2018-05-01 03:02:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5189636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikkal/pseuds/Mikkal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>It’s on the news the next morning.</p>
  <p>Iris <i>throws</i> one of their glasses at the wall with a scream of rage. It shatters, a thousand little shards of light falling to the carpet. Eddie covers his mouth with a hand, curling the other one around his stomach, and lets her scream and scream and <i>scream</i>. If he opens his mouth he’s probably going to throw up.</p>
</blockquote>A Westhallen re-write/follow up of the ending of <i>Enter Zoom</i>
            </blockquote>





	Wordless

It’s on the news the next morning.

            Iris _throws_ one of their glasses at the wall with a scream of rage. It shatters, a thousand little shards of light falling to the carpet. Eddie covers his mouth with a hand, curling the other one around his stomach, and lets her scream and scream and _scream_. If he opens his mouth he’s probably going to throw up.

            He saw Barry last night—saw him hanging from Zoom’s hand like a rag doll, boneless and bloody—but the sight of him on the television screen, someone _taping_ this like it’s nothing but some big story. It’s not like the Flash— _Barry_ —is a person or anything like that. Watching it, it makes him feel so fucking _sick_.

            “Fuck them!” she shouts, swears. Tears drip down her cheeks and her voice is hoarse, raspy. “I _told_ them not to run the story. And they do anyway!” She hefts up another glass to throw, but Eddie grabs the glass before she can. She whirls around, eyes blazing. “Fuck you! Give me that.”

            He holds it far from her and drops it on the couch, catching Iris in a tight hug. She doesn’t fight it despite her words, and just sags against him, pressing her face against his chest. He clutches her shirt in his fingers and presses his cheek on her hair, his own tears burning. His stomach rolls and his chest hurts, his temple throbbing with a growing headache.

            “Why?” she whispers. “Why does this keep happening to him? He doesn’t deserve any of this.” She sobs softly.

            Eddie sighs. There’s no words for him to say. Words won’t make any of this better. Instead he just says, “Let’s head to STAR, ‘kay? Caitlin had high prospects of him waking up today.” There is also a high prospect of him having another nine-month coma, but he doesn’t say that out loud. Just thinking it has his breath catching.

            Iris just tightens her hug, refusing to let go. “I don’t want to see him like that,” she says. “Does that make me a bad person?”

            “No. God, Iris, _no._ ” He pulls away slightly to look her in the eye. “Of course not.” He presses a kiss to her forehead. “But you want to see him anyway, don’t you?”

            She leans into the kiss, her eyes fluttering close. “Yeah, let’s go.”

            Before they go, Iris throws on a sweatshirt and Eddie hunts down the bastard that is Barry’s cat. He finds her curled up in the spot on the bed that’s normally Barry’s. The spot that’s been empty for a few days now with Barry doing overnights at both CCPD and STAR Labs—last night, though… Fluffernutter stirs just enough to twitch her tail and blink at him. Eddie’s heart may or may not break at the face that helped Barry with his depression over the last few months.

            “Hey, Fluff’,” he says softly. “Want to see Barry?”

            She meows and stretches, Eddie takes that as the cat version of a ‘yes’ and scoops her up. They have no cat carrier because Iris despises them, so he just cuddles her to his chest. They take Iris’ car, Fluffernutter purring in his lap. The ride is silent between them, awkward and uncomfortable. The last time things had been this tense between them was after their first discussion about Barry and whether or not it was right by all of them to talk to him about a relationship.

            “We shouldn’t have left last night,” she says. “We should’ve stayed.” Her grip on the steering wheel tightens, her knuckles paling. “ _We’ve should’ve stayed_ ,” she repeats quieter, softer, angrier.

            “We couldn’t,” he replies. “We were just a distraction.” They even made Joe leave, Harry was only allowed to stay because he could help a little with his science background—it’s not medical, but its enough for them. “We know he’s alive, we have to take comfort in that. Barry’s a fighter, he’s going to pull through. He’s done it before.”

            Iris scoffs. “Last time he didn’t have all _this_ to face when he woke up.” She slams a fist on the wheel. “He didn’t have a villain willing to kill so many just to get to him, who brutalized him so thoroughly we lost him _twice_ last night.” Cisco called each time, he’s not sure if he’s grateful or not. “Yeah, the Reverse Flash was there, yeah he was a killer too, but this, this is _different._ Zoom, he’s…he’s a _demon_ , a motherfucking _demon._ ”

            Eddie grabs her fist and it automatically opens, their fingers tangling together. “Maybe,” he says. “But he has us to come back to. He’s been getting better.”

The revelation after Flash Day of how much Barry thought himself as poison to other people had sent Eddie reeling and resulted in more than just a few tears from quite a few of them, but he _knows_ Barry’s been getting better—his actions and his words prove it. He’s still not there a hundred percent, but he _has gotten better_. He has _everything_ to come back to.

“It’s going to be okay,” he assures. Fluffernutter kneads his leg and he winces at the claws. “Yeah, thanks for that.”

They trade off Fluffernutter when they get to STAR Labs, Iris cuddling her this time and almost running into a wall when she pressed her face against the Turkish Van’s fur. Eddie steered her through the door, he’d laugh if the situation wasn’t so somber.

The Cortex is silent, _dead._ Barry’s still unconscious on the bed, but the bruising is less now, no longer that disgusting purple/blue mix, the cuts on his face are not as deep. There’s a neck brace, though, and a nasal cannula—really, he’s just glad Barry can breathe on his own now. Caitlin and Cisco are talking quietly next to him, poking something on Caitlin’s always-present tablet. Harry’s no where to be seen and Eddie’s sadden to notice they haven’t gotten Jay to come back yet.

“How is he?” Iris asks quietly. She puts Fluffernutter down on the bed and the cat immediately curls up in the crook of his arm, purring contently.

“Better,” Caitlin answers, locking her tablet. “Not completely healed, but he’s better. He started breathing on his own around two this morning.” She pushes a lock of hair behind her ear, the bags under her eyes a stark contrast to her pale skin. “I was going to call or text, but I…you guys have been having a rough time lately, you needed the sleep.”

“So do you,” Eddie says. “Cait, you look exhausted.”

Cisco scoffs. “Good luck trying to get her to sleep before Barry wakes up. I’ve been trying all night.” And he doesn’t look any better in comparison, but Eddie keeps that to himself. The chances either of them got any sleep last night is absolute zero, along the same lines as the amount of sleep Iris and Eddie got. “We made Harry go hang out somewhere else. He was making… _comments._ You’d think the big reveal about his daughter would make him less of a dick, but noooo.”

Iris snorts as she cards her fingers through Barry’s hair, smoothing it out from where it still stood on end from the night before. “Where you expecting anything different?”

“Surprisingly…no.”

Eddie shakes his head and moves to Barry’s other side, dragging his fingers along his arm and taking his hand, pressing his fingers into the fleshy parts of his palm. He’s warm and _alive_ , his heart beating under Eddie’s fingertips. Wait, his heartbeat, it’s—.

“I think he’s waking up,” Cisco says, scrambling from his seat

Barry’s eyelashes flutter and he groans, his head shifting. “Hey,” he croaks out.

“Hey,” Iris says softly, smiling and so close to tears. “Welcome back. You had us worried, you were out for a while.”

Eddie nods. “Please don’t do that again.” He grips his hand tighter. “I’m tired of you being in his bed.”

His smile is small and wobbly, but it’s a smile. “Sorry.” He swallows thickly. “Linda? How is she?”

“She staying at Dad’s right now,” Iris answers. “We originally planned for Coast City, but then, yeah, Zoom happened.”

“And him—Zoom?”

Cisco shrugs. “We don’t know. I got him with the anti-speed serum, but I guess it wasn’t enough, or he was too strong. It downed him for half a second, but then he was gone.”

Barry frowns, his hand absently going to Fluffernutter’s head and scratching her ears. Eddie’s pretty sure he doesn’t even realize what he’s doing. The cat purrs and kneads Barry’s arm, stretching up to her feet.

“We have to go after him,” he says even though his eyes are drooping.

“No, you need to heal first,” Caitlin says. “You were really bad off, Barry. If it weren’t for your accelerated healing, you’d be dead.” She bites her lip. “I know I say that, but this time it’s serious.”

Fluffernutter turns around once then pads her way to the space between Barry’s knees, burying herself there and curling into a little ball. Eddie grins at the cuteness, letting himself finally smile now that he knows Barry’s going to be okay. He glances at his boyfriend only to have his heart drop to his stomach at the look of horror on his face.

“Barry?” he asks softly. “What’s wrong?” Barry moves to sit up, but both Iris and Caitlin stop him with gentle hands. “Babe?” he tries again.

He pats at his legs, his eyes getting wider and wider, his chin trembling and his eyes growing glassy with tears. “I-I—.” He swallows, then chokes. “I can’t feel my legs.” He glances up at them in horror, terrified. “Guys, _I can’t feel my legs_.”

Barry’s breathing hitches and then suddenly he’s gasping for air, his eyes squeezing shut. He curls up, clutching his chest with one hand, the other going to his hair, but his legs don’t move. Eddie braces his back, rubbing small circles on his skin, though it’s completely useless.

_The fastest man alive can’t walk._

“Barry, I need you to breathe,” Caitlin says sharply. “Cisco, get me the mask, that’ll help at least calm him down.”

Iris takes the mask from Cisco and covers Barry’s mouth and nose with it, pleading him to “Breathe, Barry, please breathe.”

He let’s out this horrible, strangled gasping noise that has Eddie’s heart breaking. It takes another full three minutes for him to calm his breathing, but there’s still this hitching to it.

“We don’t know if you’re paralyzed,” Caitlin says, trying to sound reassuring. “Let me run some tests first, okay?”

Barry clings to the mask, pressing it against his face harshly enough his skin pulls white. He nods, though, and wipes the tears from his cheeks. Fluffernutter lets out a tiny meow and wanders her way up to rub her face against his chin, her purring getting even louder.

Eddie wraps his arm around his shoulder and pulls him close, resting his chin on top of his head. Barry slumps against him, pressing as close as possible without the use of his legs. Eddie shifts so he’s sitting on the bed, moving himself closer instead of the other way around.

“It’s going to be okay, Barry,” Iris says, thought she sounds less-than-confident. She sits on Barry’s other side and wraps her arms under his ribs in a hug, resting her forehead on his shoulder. “You’re going to be okay,” she mumbles.

He sobs and shakes his head, but doesn’t say a word.

There’s nothing to really say.


End file.
